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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30059037">sword of justice, felled</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanamagnus/pseuds/arcanamagnus'>arcanamagnus</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers: Victory</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amicable Exes but in a weird way, Character Study, Gen, M/M, Nostalgia, Relationship Study, leozack's complicated feelings about everything and everyone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:02:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,509</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30059037</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanamagnus/pseuds/arcanamagnus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Leozack ponders upon forgiveness, adequacy and romance as he summons his old friend Hellbat to assist him in the Victory War.</p><p>Written for Rare TF Pair Day, March 2021 - Forgiveness</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>past Hellbat/Leozack</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Rare TF Pair Events 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>sword of justice, felled</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>soooo honestly i wanted to start hosting my fics in another platform and i *am* doing that, but i can't let the victory fans hang dry now can i? can't forget my aim to overtake 50% of the victory tag here</p><p>you can check the "kira fics" tag on my tumblr (@lobisoma) to know what i'm up to, and i'm working on making cover art to all my existing fics so some files might be updated with a new cover in the future :3c</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Leozack wasn't much the kind for forgiveness. He held grudges spectacularly and his feelings had always been strong and unrelenting and </span>
  <em>
    <span>unforgiving</span>
  </em>
  <span> like the sword of Justice upon the guilty's neck; there was no space in his life for those who'd dared to hurt him, to exploit his vulnerable states, to </span>
  <em>
    <span>debase him</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Sure, he had mood swings that waxed and waned the violence and the targets of his vindication, but forgiveness was never on the table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hellbat was a special case though. It was… complicated, he supposed, but Hellbat was definitely not in the list of ex-lovers and colleagues he'd maul on sight. His first love, his first friend had crossed him many times over, yes, but there was an implicit and explicit respect and care — he actually respected Leozack's personhood and boundaries, which was a low bar, he knew — that guided his actions. Hellbat seemed to legitimately think he was keeping him from hurt and failure and the Decepticon cause from </span>
  <em>
    <span>catastrophic failure </span>
  </em>
  <span>(which Leozack didn’t agree with, obviously), but while he might be inadequate as a leader in Hellbat's view (and wasn't that ironic when Hellbat had been the one to put it in his head that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>deserved</span>
  </em>
  <span> better?), he was perfectly adequate as a mech, a lover, a friend. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was no disrespect, no personal encroachment whenever weakness struck and they decided to try again, just this one time, and being with someone who knew him from the very start, who knew his body and spark and their limitations and knew the pain of parental rejection and peer abuse on their own metal was freeing in some way. Neither of them had to worry about what personal information they could tell each other under threat of rejection or dismemberment — they already knew —, and they dared not prod at each other’s emotional wounds unnecessarily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, sometimes Leozack withheld information on his time alone just for the game of it; it was fun to keep Hellbat guessing, to have him make turbopuppy optics at him and whine his name like a stubborn child, and he knew Hellbat didn't mind it, didn't feel degraded by it like Leozack would in his place — he liked to put on a show for his beloved Leader after all (it wasn't a sexual thing, he'd had to explain too many times to Guyhawk, they both just found it funny and, alright, sometimes Leozack really was mad and wanted to "punish" Hellbat in some way that didn’t matter, but it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>innocent fun</span>
  </em>
  <span>) —, and he'd tell him anyway after a little back and forth. It was a routine they comfortably fell into when reunited, and Leozack was sure it'd come up again now as he mentally schooled himself to swallow his pride and call in his stupid ex who had agreed with him that they were unsalvageable at this point in time and space because of their collective head slag (mostly </span>
  <em>
    <span>Leozack's</span>
  </em>
  <span> head slag, the subject in question helpfully added, after the worst intimate betrayals of his life these last few hundred vorns — his head and spark were truly </span>
  <em>
    <span>frazzled</span>
  </em>
  <span> for relationships).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Deathsaurus had made it more than clear that Leozack and his more stable subordinates weren't performing to his standards, and it pained Leozack to admit that maybe he needed Hellbat's brand of clumsily obtained intel more than he'd previously thought. It had only been two vorns ago that they decided to part ways indefinitely, to allow themselves some fresh air, and it was so embarrassing to back out on it so slagging quick, like he was desperate or something, but his position as Lieutenant Commander was on the line here and he supposed he could work around Hellbat’s poor opinion of his leadership better than the Emperor’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His fingers drifted over the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Thunder Arrow</span>
  </em>
  <span>'s communications array, pensive. He thought about Hellbat's hands, thinner and more delicate than his despite their restlessness, about watching him mindlessly shuffle that damned deck of holographic cards from when they were four while he waited for the computer to finish downloading clandestinely obtained files with his feet kicked up on the dashboard. And then came the rest of the memory — Leozack scolding him about scuffing the machinery (like he hadn't done the exact same thing so many times) and planting himself on Hellbat's lap once the legs were reluctantly returned to a semi-proper sitting position, pressing himself as close as their engineering would allow and letting the strong rumble that echoed from his chest vibrate through both their bodies as Hellbat's hands made themselves a home upon Leozack's plating, dipping into his sensitive chest vents or tapping on his cockpit with no rhyme or reason, cards scattered on the floor. In the present, Leozack shivered as his body recalled the moment when Hellbat's teeth came into play, something that had once been an earnest concession for a good friend's sensory seeking habits before Leozack had to contend with the fact that he was ridiculously into it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Something good come to mind, Captain?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leozack froze. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Had he…</span>
  </em>
  <span> Yes, he had — Hellbat's smug face stared back at him from the vidscreen now, head tilted like a curious hellhound.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Is this an important call?" He had the audacity to ask, tone so light and played up, "I have so many big things to do, obviously, and I'm pretty sure so do you, so—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I need you."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The words felt like they punched their way out of his throat like fuel reflux, but nowhere near as acrid, just cloying and bitter.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>"Excuse me?"</span>
  </em>
  <span> Hellbat's voice glitched into a completely different audial-splitting octave and his optics widened as far as they'd go, and Leozack's own panic bubbled up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"That's not—" he shook his head, ruffled his plating, "I— I need your expertise. Professional stuff. Deathsaurus won't get off my aft about—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You're back with the General? I thought after—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"He's the Emperor now, I don't exactly have a </span>
  <em>
    <span>choice</span>
  </em>
  <span>," Leozack spat out his correction, he'd much rather work under an Empress Thunderblast, but… "He's moving to take the Fortress back, okay? And I really fucking need a competent intelligence officer and </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> happen to be the only one with Combiner engineering."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh, huh," Hellbat's earfins twitched as he brought a finger to his chin, "So, just to clarify, we're not—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Primus, </span>
  <em>
    <span>no.</span>
  </em>
  <span> I don't— I don't have the mind for that anymore, you know that. I need your brains, not your spit in my mouth."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Whyyyy do you have to put it in such a gross way, oh my god," but it made Hellbat laugh, at least, and it seemed to seal the deal because, "When do you need my top tier services by?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leozack tried to run a calculation of Earth time to ship time, but it just hurt his processor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"As soon as you can get your sorry aft over here," he said instead, "If you make me look stupid in front of the Emperor I will not forgive you. I'm wearing your life cord as a fragging necklace, you hear me?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hellbat just laughed further at the clearly empty threat. He knew Leozack held too much sentimentality for him still, that he hadn't it in him for more than a teasing flick or a punishing bite, and it made Leozack's spark give him a warning pang — </span>
  <em>
    <span>too attached still, dipstick.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He said his goodbyes and transmitted his coordinates still with that hollow ache in his chest. Did he forgive Hellbat? For frequent attempts at career sabotage? For having emotional needs that clashed with his own? For not fucking wanting him anymore? Lionbreast gave his own resounding purr as a provisional answer, warming Leozack's chest like a soft blanket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It didn't really matter if Leozack's wrecked emotional subroutines didn't know how to parse this situation — didn't know how to parse </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He just had to push through and work hard, like he'd done all his life and he'd be </span>
  <em>
    <span>fine.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alone in the communications room though, Leozack could quietly admit to himself that he missed restless hands on his fuselage and playful banter. Maybe they could still have it without falling into the pitfalls of deep emotional involvement again, he pondered, but it seemed distant, improper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a full body sigh, Leozack righted himself, popping his backstruts into place. He had to tell Deathsaurus about the reinforcements he had just obtained, and his distaste for the mech overpowered any soft emotions whirling through his spark. Leozack’s day would come though, with or without Hellbat’s help, and all of their families would be freed (if they were even still alive) under </span>
  <em>
    <span>his</span>
  </em>
  <span> command.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was capable, strong, and his emotions and convictions could make him even stronger if he knew how to play his cards.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leozack wasn’t much the kind for forgiveness, but he was certainly the kind for avenging, himself and others, and one day Deathsaurus and Star Saber would both get their reckonings and then no one would ever be able to hurt him ever again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Victory was on his horizon, and victory was unforgiving.</span>
</p>
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